What’s in a name?

This morning amid the usual school run chaos I was watching my baby boy sitting on the floor, surrounded by toys, playing with a doll. He was poking it in the eyes (as he likes to do with most faces) and pulling the ribbon/scarf that was tied around her head.

I called my husband over to watch, not expecting the following conversation;

“What’s he doing to 2Pac?” He said.

“2Pac!!” I giggled “Who is 2Pac?”

“That doll.”

“Who called that dolly 2Pac?”

“Me and Diddy.”

“Why on earth did you come up with that name?” I quizzed him.

“Because the doll has got the same head scarf arrangement as 2Pac!” came the ‘obvious’ reply! I googled images of 2pac (the famous rapper, now sadly departed) and sure enough they do indeed have matching head scarves!

There are some things about my husband that I should probably explain.

He is extremely creative. He is an artist and he sees the world in a way that fascinates me. He always views things from angles I didn’t even consider and he has truly helped me to identify the things in my life that are really important. Sometimes however, he is just weird!

He went to a Steiner School. This has added to his sense of creativity and unique thinking.

He is a big child. (Who is 40 next week!)

His ideas on names are “Interesting” to say the least. Naming our three children has been one of the most challenging tasks of our lives. And even now he doesn’t call them by their actual names, only by the nick names he has given them, which have all bizarrely also come from the names of rappers! (I told you he’s unique). Our eldest son is referred to as “Snoop Dogg” because he had a Snoopy T-shirt when he was a baby. Our beautiful little girl is known as E. Diddy (after P. Diddy). She actually thinks that her name is Diddy. The baby hasn’t got a name that has stuck…yet. But he had been referred to as Tiny Temper and Slim Baby!

So there you have it. No wonder the doll is called 2Pac. Of course she is, it makes perfect sense (in the world of my husband!)

It would seem that the skill of picking unique names is not just limited to my husband. My children have made some pretty spectacular choices too for their favourite toys and I wanted to share some examples in the hope that it’s not just my family that this applies to.

As a child I would name my favourite toys, but I would say that the choices I made were fairly ‘normal’ and self-explanatory. For example, I had “Little Ted” who was a ‘little teddy’. He was my favourite and I always took him to bed with me and I still have him of course. (Not in my bed though!) I also had dolls with names like Abigail, Rebecca and Rachael.

So I was quite taken aback when my son named his first favourite toy (A rather large, floppy eared dog) Nob-Dog! Apparently there was a dog on a programme called The Bobinogs who was called Nogdog, but he had misheard! This was not easy to deal with when we would take him out and he would shout to his giant dog “Come on NOB-DOG!” Some interesting looks came my way let me tell you!

Nob-Dog still sits on the end of my sons’ bed alongside Mr Catkin (a blue dinosaur), Terry Tibbs (A little grey wolf), Mr Button eyes (A small monkey) Owl Phone (An owl that looks like a phone, clearly!) several Tea monkeys (from PG Tips) and a bear called Yoda! He has also made a camouflage bear for our baby son who is called “Sarge!”

Another interesting name emerged one day over dinner. Getting my eldest son to eat anything, ever, has always been a struggle and this has made dinnertimes hard work. We’ve tried all sorts of ways to encourage him to eat. We’ve done sticker charts, money tins, marble jars, bribery with pudding etc. etc. But one of the most effective ways to get him to eat was by moving a small ceramic bear from one side of our spotty table cloth to the other. Each mouthful he took meant that the bear was moved forward one dot towards the other side of the table and pudding!

One day I asked him if his bear had a name. “Yes” he said without batting an eyelid “His name is Barry Greendale!” I laughed until I cried!!

Really! Barry Greendale! I apologise to any actual Barry Greendales who may be reading this, but I did not expect my 4-year-old son to pick that specific name for a tiny ceramic bear!

It appears that the talent for naming things has also extended to our family pets. We currently have fish called Stephen 2 (I’m not entirely sure what happened to Stephen 1) and Battle Fish. He is a feisty fella. Now I think about it he might be what happened to poor Stephen 1!

We have also had rabbits called Trevor and Smiffy and a guinea pig named Morris.

So I guess what I’m really asking is this; is this normal? Does everyone else have children who pick weird and wonderful names for their toys and pets? I hope so, otherwise I am already very concerned about the names of my future grand children!